Taken At
A camera that writes the date, the time and the place into each photograph as you take it. For the parcel left outside, the hire car before you drive it away, the parking bay and its sign, the thing that arrived broken: anything you may one day have to prove. Everything stays on your phone, with a backup copy in your own iCloud.
Before you start
Nothing. There is no account and nothing to set up. The first time the camera opens, the iPhone asks whether the app may use the camera, and whether it may use your location while you use the app. Allow the location if you want the place on your photographs.
Taking photographs
Tap Photograph. The camera opens with the stamp already showing in the bottom left corner in orange letters, its clock ticking: that is exactly what will be written. Press the round Take photo button for each photograph. Each one is stamped and kept the moment it is taken, and the camera stays open for the next. Tap Finished, at the top right, when you are done. There is nothing to type and nothing to choose.
What the stamp says
- The day, the date and the time to the second, with the time zone.
- The street address and the town.
- The coordinates, and how accurate the phone was (within so many metres, or feet in the United States).
The stamp is part of the picture, so it goes wherever the photograph goes. The same date and position, and which phone and lens took the picture, are also written inside the file (its EXIF data), where any photo program can read them. They are set by the phone as the shutter goes and cannot be edited in the app, which is what makes them worth having.
No signal, or no place
With no signal, the date and time are still stamped, and the place is stamped as coordinates without the address. If you would rather not stamp the place at all, open Settings and switch Place off. If the camera says "Place is switched off", location has been refused for the app in the iPhone's Settings: tap the message to go there.
Finding and sending
Photos shows every photograph, newest first, a day at a time. Tap a photograph to see it whole, then Send to pass it on through the iPhone's own sheet: Messages, Mail, WhatsApp, Save Image, Print.
To send several, tap Select and tick the photographs you need, or tap Select all. The Send button beside a day's heading ticks that whole day for you. Then choose Send as PDF or Send as photos. The PDF puts the photographs two to a page (A4 in the United Kingdom, US Letter in the United States), numbered, each with its stamp on it and its date, time and place in words beside it. Tap Done to leave the ticks. Files are named for the moment they were taken.
What is free and what is paid
Your first ten photographs are free, with everything working: the stamp with its place, sending, the PDF, and the backup. An eleventh photograph needs the unlock. It is one purchase, with Family Sharing, and there is no subscription. Nothing you have already taken is ever locked, unlocked or not. Deleting a photograph does not give back a free one. Restore purchase is on the unlock screen and in Settings.
Backup
The app backs up automatically to your own iCloud, free, and offers to bring your photographs back when it is opened on a new phone with nothing in it. On Backup you can see when it was last saved, switch it off, or restore.
Questions
- Can I change a photograph's date or place? No, and that is deliberate.
- Can I stamp a photograph I took with the iPhone's camera? No. Only the app's own camera can add a photograph, so that every stamp comes from the moment of the photograph.
- Will a company or a court accept my photographs? A dated, placed photograph is good evidence of what your phone saw, when and where. The app cannot promise the outcome of a dispute or a claim.
- The address is slightly wrong. The address comes from Apple's maps for the position the phone reported. The coordinates and the accuracy beside them are the precise part; indoors or between tall buildings the phone can be tens of metres out, and the stamp says so.
- Does it record video? Not in this version.
Contact
Anything at all, including bugs and suggestions: conor@conorhannah.com.